Letters to the Editor 3/12/2017

TIMES-TRIBUNE READERS
/
Published: March 12, 2017

Share This

Stand up to hate

Editor: Some of us imagined that we dented the nationalism, hatred and racism that roiled the world in the first half of the 20th century. We worked hard toward peace and understanding, improving education to improve human rights and stop genocide.

Yet, despite our best efforts, in every corner of the globe, hatred thrives and so does genocide. There are those in power, who, for personal and political gain, keep fear alive and scapegoat others for their failures of governance.

Fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate. Now it feels as if another genocidal cataclysm is just around the corner. Millions have been driven from their homes in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America. Millions more, in the United States, have been told they will be deported.

The fear they feel is real. We know this fear. We have felt this fear before. My parents and family members were deported in Europe. America did not want refugees from the Holocaust. Some Americans are terrified of refugees and migrants. They visit their rage on scapegoats.

Mosques have burned and more than 100 Jewish institutions have been threatened. Shots have been fired; cemeteries, churches and synagogues have been desecrated. Social media is rife with memes of hatred. Swastikas pop up on blank walls with ugly words and images.

The silence of our leaders is deafening and deadly. We have seen this before, too.

Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, advised us to be our own leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to the content of a person’s character. They, and others, taught us to speak truth to power.

They are gone. We are here. It’s time to speak out.

Only we can tell our representatives in Washington and the Legislature to join those who refuse to stand idly and watch hatred consume our planet.

JEANETTE

FRIEDMAN-SIERADSKI

PARADISE VALLEY,

MONROE COUNTY

Chasm deepens

Editor: The Scranton School Board is about to vote on a plan designed to

help alleviate the growing deficit in the general fund. The deficit reported by The Times-Tribune is approximately $30 million. This figure does not include the $14 million that the district borrowed to cover operating costs

for fiscal 2017.

The focal point of the new proposal is a plan to reduce the size of the professional staff, not by layoffs or through attrition, but by doling out large buyout payments to eligible teachers. The amounts reported are $15,000 a year for seven years, followed by three yearly payments of $10,000. This would mean that each retiree would receive $135,000, in addition to the generous pension to which all public school employees are entitled. The Times-Tribune reported that 51 teachers would be eligible for the proposed plan, bringing the total outlay to the staggering amount of $7.8 million. This does not include payouts to district administrators, should the board decide to include them in the proposed plan.

I suppose the thought process behind this plan is that eliminating the highest-

paid employees and replacing them at a lower pay scale would benefit the

district’s financial position. This is, at best, a large risk. Future contract negotiations could change the salary levels for new employees and there is no contingency to limit the number of new hires.

The only responsible way to reduce the deficit is to reduce the growth of expenditures. There is an old slogan with which we are all familiar: “When you are in a hole, stop digging.”

The board appears to be using a steam shovel.

GREG POPIL

SCRANTON

Power of belief

Editor: What is the St. Patrick’s Day luck of the Irish? I often tell my patients that what we focus upon tends to become our reality.

We will likely do things, consciously and unconsciously, consistent with that focus in order to help make it happen. By sharing the following story, I hope to help readers find what they seek.

When my son, Nicholas, was 6, he told me that he wanted to find a four-leaf clover because he had heard that they bring good luck. Unable to find one quickly, he became frustrated and discouraged. I tried to explain that four-leaf clovers are special because they are rare and difficult to find. I assured him that if he really wants to find a four-leaf clover that he needs to really believe and know that he can. I emphasized to him that as you “feel it to be true,” you can and will do things and allow things to happen, in order to help you find your clover.

I had actually first suggested to him what seemingly defeats my son’s initial intent: I told Nicholas that we could see whether we could find a four-leaf clover on the internet. We found one on eBay. After a couple of dollars and a few days, Nicholas had his four-leaf clover from New Zealand. After receiving it, however, he looked at me and said: “But, daddy, I want to find my own four-leaf clover” (which, of course, is the whole point). After again getting frustrated while looking in the front yard of our home, that is when I told Nicholas about the power of his own belief.

Since that time, almost without even seemingly trying, he literally has found at least two dozen four-leaf clovers.

GERALD A. SOLFANELLI

PSYCHOLOGIST,

DUNMORE

Reality optional

Editor: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson said in a recent speech that Africans who were kidnapped, shackled and sold as slaves in America were, in reality, immigrants.

Never mind that immigrants come here voluntarily, not in chains, but that matters nothing to anyone who has no mind and still doesn’t mind.

Does Carson also believe that the passengers on the Titanic were members of the polar bear swimming club in training? Does he believe the victims of the Aurora movie theater massacre were just part of the show? Does he believe Hurricane Katrina was just a sunshower?

In the alternative fact, Trumpanzee universe, anything is true if you say so. Before I sign off, here goes:

Maybe someday, Carson can be America’s first immigrant to Mars.

VINCE MORABITO

SCRANTON

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.

New York Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz filed a brief in U.S. District Court in Utica asking for the Interstate Commerce Commission to restore the famed Phoebe Snow line, of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, to service and the return of passenger service between Port Jervis and Binghamton, New York.
(read more)

Joseph Watley was heading to his home in Connecticut when a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled him over near the Blooming Grove exit on Interstate 84 in Pike County for allegedly driving 48 mph in a 65 mph zone.
(read more)